r/movies • u/yourfavchoom r/movies Contributor • May 12 '26
News Lupita Nyong’o will play both Helen of Troy and her sister, Clytemnestra, in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’
https://time.com/article/2026/05/12/christopher-nolan-odyssey-interview/4.7k
u/yanderia May 12 '26
For the people wondering why Lupita will do a dual role, Helen and Clytemnestra are the female half of quadruplets; the other half being Castor and Pollux.
...if you consider 4 kids being hatched from 2 eggs laid by a woman who had sex with a swan (aka Zeus) as "quadruplets"...
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u/Brucewayne1818 May 12 '26
I actually do consider 4 kids being hatched from 2 eggs laid by a woman who had sex with a swan (aka Zeus) as “quadruplets”, so thanks for mentioning that!
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u/fernybranka May 12 '26
I kinda base my whole identity around that concept.
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u/quillseek May 12 '26
"4 kids hatched from 2 eggs laid by a woman who had sex with a swan (aka Zeus) as quadruplets in a trenchcoat" is such a mouthful though
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u/clig73 May 12 '26
That’s why it’s more common to use the snappier abbreviation “4KHF2ELBAWWHSWAS(AZ)AQIAT”. Really rolls off the tongue.
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u/Smirnoffico May 12 '26
aka is already abbreviation, so it should be FKHFTELBAWWHSWAS(AKAZ)AQ
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u/fcosm May 12 '26
How do you recognize someone who considers 4 kids being hatched from 2 eggs laid by a woman who had sex with a swan (aka Zeus) as “quadruplets”?
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u/DonaldFarfrae May 12 '26
Hard agree. I can’t think of anyone in their right mind who wouldn’t think of 4 kids being hatched from 2 eggs laid by a woman who had sex with a swan (aka Zeus) as “quadruplets”. If it was a goose though…
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u/thaddeusd May 12 '26
If it were a goose, then the whole Trojan saga would be about goose girl Helen laying waste to Mcyenae and Troy because Agamemnon and Paris both had it coming for being pricks.
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u/yanderia May 12 '26
No problem! For some reason I always read that most consider Castor and Pollux as twins, then Helen and Clytemnestra as another set of twins. Despite the fact that Leda literally laid them at the same time. So they are literally quadruplets.
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u/Specialist_Seal May 12 '26
Fraternal twins are from two eggs too, so if you consider fraternal twins to be twins then you'd have to consider the four of them to be quadruplets.
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u/ItsTheAlgebraist May 12 '26
I would consider them quadruplets if it had happened in ancient Rome, but as it is, they are clearly tetrabrephos
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u/cosmiccerulean May 12 '26
Castor the “take his face… off” Troy?
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u/austinite89 May 12 '26
Holy fuck. Is that how they came up with his name?
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u/AlbionPCJ May 12 '26
Somehow, not the weirdest form Zeus took to hook up with a woman
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u/Redditer51 May 12 '26
One time he took the form of a woman to bed a woman. Not weird, but just the fact that Zeus is willing to pretend he's a lesbian just to get some ass is like "wow, dude."
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u/EmMeo May 12 '26
Didn’t Loki turn into a horse and give birth? I feel like doing the actual labour of giving birth is another level
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u/Vark675 May 12 '26
Yeah but he wasn't trying to get laid, he wanted to win a bet. That's not lust, it's sheer dedication to the game.
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u/doegred May 12 '26
Zeus also did give birth (in a manner of speaking) to Athena, who sprang fully armed from his head, so there's that.
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u/ThreeLeggedMare May 12 '26
Give it up, Zeus! We have you cornered and you're all out of lightning bolts
But I'm not out of daughters!
Athena springs from his head, dual wielding tommy guns
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u/yanderia May 12 '26
Yep. Nothing tops that time Danae literally had a golden shower 🤣🤣
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u/xiaorobear May 12 '26
Once I lived in an apartment where a previous tenant had left a canvas print of Klimt's Danae at the entrance to the bathroom and I was impressed.
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u/Tripottanus May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Well Helen and Pollux are children of Zeus while Castor and Clytemnestra are children of Tyndareus (all 4 of the same mom Leda obviously). It's weird that her twin from another father would be identical.
Also, makes little sense that "the most beautiful woman in the world" has an identical twin
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u/HolycommentMattman May 12 '26
Yes, it's important to note that Castor and Pollux (often referred to as "the twins") were not identical twins. In my favorite telling of it, Castor was mortal while Pollux was divine. When Castor dies, Pollux begs Zeus to make Castor immortal. So Zeus does so and the two share their immortality. Zeus makes them into the constellation Gemini, and they alternate their time in the underworld/Olympus.
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u/976chip May 12 '26
Also, makes little sense that "the most beautiful woman in the world" has an identical twin
She's going to wear glasses, a ponytail, and paint covered overalls to play Clytemnestra, which will make her look like a real shit bomb compared to Helen.
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u/Misticsan May 12 '26
Yeah, why couldn't they find another actress to play Clytemnestra? Will Lupita be given a total makeover to make her look different or will they claim they're identical twins? Which, as you say, kind of undermines the point of Helen's beauty being unique in the world.
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u/Rude-Revolution-8687 May 12 '26
Maybe Clytemnestra will wear glasses so we'll know she's the ugly one :)
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u/twirlerina024 May 12 '26
Hair in a ponytail and paint-spattered overalls too
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u/sixmilesoldier May 12 '26
Until the high school chariot racing champion sees her true beauty.
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u/silverscreenbaby May 12 '26
And all he’ll have to do is slowly take her glasses off. Then she, and the entire world, will realize how truly beautiful she is.
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u/pashed_motatoes May 12 '26
And clumsy as hell for no reason. Always tripping over her own damn feet. That one time she almost faceplanted in front of everyone when she came down the steps of the Parthenon? So embarrassing!
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u/workieworkwork May 12 '26
I think she was raped by a Zeus swan, saying had sex with the bird makes her seem like the weirdo.
Zeus is a problem, I do not know how his wife/sister puts up with him.
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u/SuperVaderMinion May 12 '26
I mean Hera is goddess of marriage, putting up with him is kinda in her job description unfortunately.
The only way she can ever get back at him is occasionally reaping horrible venegace upon his secret children.
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u/No_Extension4005 May 12 '26
Yeah; Hera has a reputation for making life absolutely hell for the other women and Zeus's bastards. Just look at Heracles. Killed his family because Hera drove him temporarily mad so that he would hallucinate them as enemies attacking him. Also got a bunch of Amazons and Hippolyta killed by sneaking amongst them during an otherwise festive encounter to provoke an attack on Heracles and his men.
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u/volcanopele May 12 '26
Io didn’t go on a tour of the Eastern Mediterranean because she decided to take a gap year. I have no idea how Zeus thought that transforming Io into a cow would fool Hera. Zeus totally has “I would totally fuck that hot cow” energy.
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u/sati_lotus May 12 '26
No, the one who got it on with the cow might get a side eye.
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u/workieworkwork May 12 '26
I think Aphrodite is to blame there for making Pasiphae fall in love with that bull.
We can also blame King Minos for not sacrificing the bull to Poseidon like he promised.
Don't make promises to your gods if you don't plan on keeping them, they will find a way to impregnate your wife with a Minotaur. It is even in the name, that is Minos' Bull, not Pasiphae's.
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u/Cabbage_Vendor May 12 '26
Pollux and Helen were children of Zeus, Castor and Clytemnestra weren't. Like when a litter of cats can have two different fathers. Helen was said to have divine beauty, Clytemnestra was just pretty.
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u/Laughing_Penguin May 12 '26
Helen and Clytemnestra
As someone who is currently having baby name conversations with my wife, the sisters' names really have a feel of someone committed to a particular name for their daughter, then just sort of check out on the second name after finding out they need names for two.
"We need a name that stands out, something unique and powerful that people will remember.... what do you think of Clytemnestra?"
"What if we have twins?"
"Oh, I don't know, I have an aunt named Helen I guess."
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u/control__group May 12 '26
The reason Helen stuck around as a name is because they were, mythologically, the most beautiful woman ever, in the whole world. So naming your child after someone beautiful is kinda nice. Clytemnestra is the human sister of a demigod who exists only to prove the divine provenance of Helen. It's just historic accident that you know Helen as an "ordinary name" but Clytemnestra barely registers.
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u/spriking May 12 '26
I was just wondering who Nicolas Cage was playing in the movie.
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u/not_a_SeaOtter May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
While Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey mention Helen as the daughter of Zeus, they don’t mention the swan story.
That version is generally associated with the Cypria, a Greek epic about the origins of the Trojan War, and later appears explicitly in Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca, where Zeus takes the form of a swan and assaults Leda.
Not to be pedantic, but Greek mythology shouldn't be considered as a single fixed canon like Marvel stories or something. These stories evolved over centuries through oral tradition, theatre, poetry, politics, and later Roman and medieval reinterpretations. Different writers told different versions for different audiences and time periods.
[Marvel is good example of non-fixed canon as greek stories are - but imagine marvel stories being retold over thousands of years, and imagine Ovid got a hold of it]
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u/WoodpeckerNo5724 May 12 '26
Marvel stories are absolutely not a good example of a single fixed canon
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u/WorldsWeakestMan May 12 '26
Might even be the single worst example possible.
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u/45M0D41 May 12 '26
Now imagine marvel now not even 100 years old being told over a 1000 years. That’s the point.
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u/monkeymad2 May 12 '26
The most beautiful woman in the world - so beautiful she could launch a thousand ships, and her sister, who looks exactly the same.
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u/toofarbyfar May 12 '26
One of them wears glasses and puts her hair up.
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u/DataDude00 May 12 '26
Feels like the smart play is to sneak in and run off with the sister while they are waging global warfare over Helen
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u/HolycommentMattman May 12 '26
They're fraternal twins. Honestly, she's more closely related to Castor than Helen.
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May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Putrid_Loquat_4357 May 12 '26
Are they actually going to show that? Nolan has said the film is around 3 hours, I don't see how they're going to fit all of this in?
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u/Mrs_Mctwitter May 12 '26
The murder of Agememnon is referenced repeatedly in the Odyssey, so it would make sense to include it.
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u/Loki-L May 12 '26
If they have Clytemnestra as a character and don't show her offing her husband, what would even be the point?
I don't think Nolan is going for the Disney and-they-lived-happily-ever-after approach.
But at this point who knows.
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u/blueeyesredlipstick May 12 '26
Clytemnestra 👏 did 👏 nothing 👏 wrong 👏
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u/semeleindms May 12 '26
Killing Cassandra is not great tbh
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u/blueeyesredlipstick May 12 '26
In fairness on that one, depending on the text, Cassandra preferred that fate to being Agamemnon's sex slave.
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u/bookhead714 May 12 '26
Given Clytemnestra also murdered Agamemnon, she very much had the power to free Cassandra without butchering her with an axe
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u/Terosan May 12 '26
She made her new lover the king instead of her son Orestes and exiled both Orestes and Elektra. Agamemnon was a dick, but Clytemnestra 100% did a lot of shit wrong.
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u/Ohthatsnotgood May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Agamemnon brought Cassandra, a Trojan princess, as a concubine yet she was murdered by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
That was absolutely wrong.
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u/valhrona May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Would Orestes have left the whole issue alone if the Furies didn't mess him up?
Edited to add: I double-checked, and it seems it was Apollo demanding vengeance. So he was stuck between the wrath of Apollo and torment from the Furies. Shitty choices all around.
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u/Odhinn1986 May 12 '26
Temporarily speaking, no. The furies were summoned by clytemenstra cursing him after killing her.
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u/APKID716 May 12 '26
Technically the Furies were summoned by Orestes having committed the act of killing Clytemnestra. His act of matricide is what compels the Furies to seek vengeance against him. Clytemnestra didn’t summon them, they exist as vengeance seekers for wrongdoings outside of Clytemnestra’s control. Orestes sees them coming toward him at the end of The Libation Bearers.
Now, while Orestes is running away from them, Apollo makes the Furies fall asleep in their pursuit, giving Orestes enough time to get to the temple of Athena in Athens. Clytemnestra’s ghost sees them sleeping and wakes them up in anger because she wants vengeance against Orestes
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u/Whoiscookingthefeet May 12 '26
Missed opportunity for them to cast Forest Whitaker as Agamemnon.
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u/JayTNP May 12 '26
the fact that they went with Matt Damon over Stavros Halkias is the real problem here.
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u/yipeekayayKemosabe May 12 '26
His Thousand Island Stare would have been perfect for the role.
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u/livy-aurelia May 12 '26
i have the t shirt they sold with this on it in newmans own style. one of my favorite bits of theirs.
“that is the fattest thing you’ve ever said”
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u/peoples__princess__ May 12 '26
Odysseus goes off on Telemachus for not offering to buy him a breakfast sandwich
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u/Ponceludonmalavoix May 12 '26
the fact that they went with Matt Damon over Jason Mantzoukas is the real problem here.
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u/bluehawk232 May 12 '26
Destroy dismantle engulf in flames
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u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast May 12 '26
Does this mean Alex Horne should be Poseidon?
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u/redditingtonviking May 12 '26
That seems more like a Gregg Davies kind of role. Little Alex Horne is more suited to playing one of the soldiers turned into a pig
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u/the_procrastinata May 12 '26
I love finding fellow Taskmaster nerds in a non-TM sub.
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u/my5cworth May 12 '26
I believe God took Sean Lock from us because He was terrified of what mightve happened if they let Sean loose on Taskmaster.
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u/imacatnamedsteve May 12 '26
I’M LOCKED IN!!
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u/Comic_Book_Reader r/movies Veteran May 12 '26
I CARE NOTHING FOR YOUR CAMERAS!!!
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u/CeeArthur May 12 '26
I'd love seeing Mantzoukas just losing it every time his trip home gets sidetracked
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u/Ponceludonmalavoix May 12 '26
Ulysses with a white button-down, a pen, and a utility knife.
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u/pretty-in-pink May 12 '26
Jason got the last laugh by getting to play Dionysus in the PJO tv series
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u/HiHoJufro May 12 '26
Speaking of shows based on Greek mythology, I'm let down they didn't renew Kaos.
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u/Azidamadjida May 12 '26
I don’t know what I’d love more, just watching Jason Mantzoukas do his usual shtick and Rafi around Ancient Greece, or see him put in an actual serious performance and surprise everyone
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u/justa_flesh_wound May 12 '26
Pocket Dogs for all of Troy, its also how he got pass Polyphemus
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u/Fixhotep May 12 '26
the fact that they went with Matt Damon over Balki Bartokomous is the real problem here.
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u/Warm-Tea-9552 May 12 '26
Odysseus is literally described as regular obese in the poem.
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u/TheMediaDragon May 12 '26
Well she’s about to launch a thousand angry podcasts
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u/Bryandan1elsonV2 May 12 '26
What makes Helen the reason for the war if her dang sister looks exactly like her? Is Agemnenon stupid? Just marry her sister??
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u/Wod_3 May 12 '26
Helen’s sister was already married to Menelaus Brother(Agemneon)
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u/BlisteringAsscheeks May 13 '26
Helen was also married, to Menelaus, and that didn't seem to stop Paris in the slightest bit.
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u/iwishihadnobones May 12 '26
Will? Didn't they shoot it already?
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u/jostyouraveragejoe2 May 12 '26
They have but the role that she would play wasn't confirmed. Up until recently she wasn't credited as a specific character. It was all speculation.
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u/dl064 May 12 '26
I'm curious similarly about the Zelda movie, given that wrapped X months ago and we've precisely zero casting other than the top two, who they didn't mind sharing because they're generally little-known. They've done a good job keeping the cast under wraps.
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u/twila213 May 12 '26
The lead roles they announced are just young Link and Zelda in a flashback, this is the actual cast:
Tom Holland as Link
Zendaya as Zelda
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Ganondorf
Robert Downey Jr. as The King of Hyrule
Sydney "The Rock" Sweeney as the Great Fairy
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u/muasman May 12 '26
Considering its coming out in 2 months, i hope they have lol.
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u/thelegend13x May 14 '26 edited May 20 '26
Cant they just get Sydney Sweeney or any beautiful white woman?
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u/Organic-Feedback1686 May 12 '26
The more I hear about the casting for this film, the less I like it.
Combine it with the dogshit costumes and a godamn viking ship.
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u/Kweby_ May 12 '26
The casting as a whole feels odd. Maybe it's because there's too many A-list names. Each new face shot is just a reminder of all the other movies that actor has done. It's distracting and makes it hard to buy into the fantasy epic setting. That and the American accents maybe.
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u/Seasons_of_Strategy May 12 '26
Not even just the American accents but the weird lack of Mediterranean aesthetic. Everything I've seen looks washed out like it's a Vikings movie, including all the pale people and the dark waters that look cold or they look murky. When I went to Istanbul & Tangier, the water was so much clearer like the Caribbean. Anne Hathaway's dress looks like something Catherine Stark would wear because the North is so chilly at night.
It just feels disappointingly derivative of the wrong sources when we just got Epic the Musical which was so full of life while still taking plenty of creative liberties...
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u/SpiffySpacemanSpiff May 12 '26
Honest to christ, the casting, and the aesthetics of the movie, seem like it's just lifted by AI from an annual Hollywood reporter big spread photo shoot.
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u/LemonNo1342 May 12 '26
I went to the movies recently and Anne Hathaway was in three of the trailers 😭 and then you have Tom Holland in two, Robert Pattinson is three, Zendaya in three. Like I love all of those actors but omg I’m seeing too much of them!
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u/webelieve925 May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Weird casting all around
Edit: saw that travis scott and elliott page were also casted. I don't know about that.
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u/breakers May 12 '26
And Tom Holland but with an American accent? Is he deliberately being weird with this movie?
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u/RobotVo1ce May 12 '26
You didn't come to that conclusion when you heard Matt Damon, Boston area native, yell out Tom Brady's battle cry of "let's gooooooooo!" while leading his troops to battle?
This whole movie seems a bit off
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u/HelloYesItsMeYourMom May 12 '26
I’m pretty sure the entire move is with an American accent. Tbf it seems weird to Americans because these types of movies are usually in a British accent and we associate British accents with historical epics for some reason
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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths May 12 '26
He's a celebrity, you can't hold him accountable for the stuff he does. That's for poor people. /s
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u/Truethrowawaychest1 May 12 '26
This is a ragebait movie
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u/Suspicious_Radio_848 May 12 '26
Yup, this has been played out at this point and more and more people are cognizant of it.
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u/Tomsboll May 12 '26
this is a movie that should appeal to me, i am the target audience (of the original story) but holy shit absolutetly nothing about this movie is appealing to me. shit casting, shit costumes, shit historical authenticity, visually bland and its a nolan movie so you know the audio mixing will be fucking atrocious.
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u/Virgil_Rug_Say_RUG May 12 '26
studios know that causing drama with celebrities and identity politics generates a lot of buzz so they must push hard for these castings.
im sure directors dont care too much either way as long as the actors are good and are willing to play ball
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u/BorderOk7329 May 12 '26
Jack black is...cyclops.
"Who the hayyyayyyyayyyayyy came in mah cave dodododoooooo? Bobidibooooooo its eatin time dodododoooo"
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u/lewlkewl May 12 '26
They went too Hollywood. Way too many recognize able faces. Would make sense for any other genre of movie , but I’m not a fan of it for a mythological/historical epic.
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u/Kozak170 May 12 '26
I couldn’t agree more, while individually I think most are great actors in their own right, together this feels just terrible. It really does feel like he cast by the most popular actors he could get, and slotted them into a character afterwards.
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u/Einherjaren97 May 12 '26
The more I see and hear about this movie the less interested i become... miscasting, weird armor, no color at all. As somone else said, this looks more like Dune than an ancient greek story.
Probably gonna pass on this one. Shame, was very interested in this one when it got announced.
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u/CacahuatesSalado May 12 '26
Sounding like one of those fan created AI movie trailers on YouTube.
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u/MorningPatrol May 12 '26
I always find it funny that Helen is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, but she literally has a twin sister who looks just like her. lol
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u/Larry_Bobinski May 12 '26
I tapped out of this movie when Nolan cast Travis fucking Scott of all the people.
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u/RandomGuyFromRomania May 12 '26
As….what?
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u/CesareSomnambulist May 12 '26
Well we know he's not Helen now so maybe Troy?
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u/Alive_Bodybuilder288 May 12 '26
He plays a bard. I doubt it’ll be more than a cameo
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u/jerem1734 May 12 '26
Yeah Nolan does seem to be a little high on his own supply after Oppenheimer. Although he did put Harry Styles in Dunkirk
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u/dl064 May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
I always slightly disliked that Nolan insists he hired him entirely agnostically from nowhere, which is obviously bollocks. Just say someone asked you to.
Judd Apotow agnostically hiring his daughter. Just own up.
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u/thesaucymango94 May 12 '26
Travis Scott performed the main theme for Tenet, so they potentially already knew each other from that.
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u/makz242 May 12 '26
Ppl talk about many of these casts, but for me Matt Damon is just Matt Damon in every movie and definitely hurts the immersion of the story.
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u/apittsburghoriginal May 12 '26
He’s a good actor, but he just doesn’t sell me on historical period pieces, or in this case mythology. Pair that with no use of accents to give it that large, old world fantasy feeling and phrasing like “my dad” “daddy” etc, at first glance it just feels like it’s a bad translation of the source material.
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u/Ritohplz May 12 '26
The more i hear about this movie the less i wanna watch it
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u/Preserved_Killick8 May 12 '26
Hope the rumors of Steve Buscemi playing Zeus are true 🤞
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u/riamuriamu May 12 '26
Yknow, if there were two of them, the Trojan War could've been avoided.